Ask a conservative about the news media - press, radio, TV - and most of them will tell you that they have “Liberal Bias.” What is meant by that? Usually, what said conservatives are referring to is the “Main Stream Media,” by which they mean CBS, ABC, NBC, PBS, NPR, the NYT and WaPo, among other outlets. They do not include Fox and other Murdock holdings even though Fox News is the most viewed television news outlet in America and has an undeniable bent to the Right. Then there’s the expression “Drive-By Media,” a Rush Limbaugh creation that infers that the media performs mob-like news hits on politicians they don’t like, presumably Republicans. The next question one should ask a conservative as a follow-up to the first would be, “Biased about what?” After all, most news has little to be biased about. Car accidents, fires, murders, and such leave little room for opinion. They simply happen and get reported. If there’s a place for bias, it is in the opinion business - columns, “news” talk radio, and the Sunday “Talking Heads.” Here are three studies about these outlets…
From Media Matters:
Sixty percent of the nation’s daily newspapers print more conservative syndicated columnists every week than progressive syndicated columnists. Only 20 percent run more progressives than conservatives, while the remaining 20 percent are evenly balanced.
In a given week, nationally syndicated progressive columnists are published in newspapers with a combined total circulation of 125 million. Conservative columnists, on the other hand, are published in newspapers with a combined total circulation of more than 152 million.
The top 10 columnists as ranked by the number of papers in which they are carried include five conservatives, two centrists, and only three progressives.
The top 10 columnists as ranked by the total circulation of the papers in which they are published also include five conservatives, two centrists, and only three progressives.
In 38 states, the conservative voice is greater than the progressive voice — in other words, conservative columns reach more readers in total than progressive columns. In only 12 states is the progressive voice greater than the conservative voice.
In three out of the four broad regions of the country — the West, the South, and the Midwest — conservative syndicated columnists reach more readers than progressive syndicated columnists. Only in the Northeast do progressives reach more readers, and only by a margin of 2 percent.
In eight of the nine divisions into which the U.S. Census Bureau divides the country, conservative syndicated columnists reach more readers than progressive syndicated columnists in any given week. Only in the Middle Atlantic division do progressive columnists reach more readers each week.
From the Center for American Progress:
Our analysis in the spring of 2007 of the 257 news/talk stations owned by the top five commercial station owners reveals that 91 percent of the total weekday talk radio programming is conservative, and 9 percent is progressive.
Each weekday, 2,570 hours and 15 minutes of conservative talk are broadcast on these stations compared to 254 hours of progressive talk—10 times as much conservative talk as progressive talk.
A separate analysis of all of the news/talk stations in the top 10 radio markets reveals that 76 percent of the programming in these markets is conservative and 24 percent is progressive, although programming is more balanced in markets such as New York and Chicago.
From Media Matters, regarding the Sunday morning talk shows on ABC, CBS, and NBC:
The balance between Democrats/progressives and Republicans/conservatives was roughly equal during Clinton’s second term, with a slight edge toward Republicans/conservatives: 52 percent of the ideologically identifiable guests were from the right, and 48 percent were from the left. But in Bush’s first term, Republicans/ conservatives held a dramatic advantage, outnumbering Democrats/progressives by 58 percent to 42 percent. In 2005, the figures were an identical 58 percent to 42 percent.
Counting only elected officials and administration representatives, Democrats had a small advantage during Clinton’s second term: 53 percent to 45 percent. In Bush’s first term, however, the Republican advantage was 61 percent to 39 percent — nearly three times as large.
In both the Clinton and Bush administrations, conservative journalists were far more likely to appear on the Sunday shows than were progressive journalists. In Clinton’s second term, 61 percent of the ideologically identifiable journalists were conservative; in Bush’s first term, that figure rose to 69 percent.
In 1997 and 1998, the shows conducted more solo interviews with Democrats/progressives than with Republicans/conservatives. But in every year since, there have been more solo interviews with Republicans/conservatives.
The most frequent Sunday show guest during this nine-year period is Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), who has appeared 124 times. Sen. Joseph Biden (D-DE) has been the most frequent guest since 2003.
In every year examined by the study — 1997 - 2005 — more panels tilted right (a greater number of Republicans/conservatives than Democrats/progressives) than tilted left. In some years, there were two, three, or even four times as many right-titled panels as left-tilted panels.
Congressional opponents of the Iraq war were largely absent from the Sunday shows, particularly during the period just before the war began.
And what of journalists in general, as opposed to just the opinionists?
From Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting:
On select issues from corporate power and trade to Social Security and Medicare to health care and taxes, journalists are actually more conservative than the general public.
Journalists are mostly centrist in their political orientation.
The minority of journalists who do not identify with the “center” are more likely to identify with the “right” when it comes to economic issues and to identify with the “left” when it comes to social issues.
Demographics are a good indicator of bias, right? Here’s what FAIR found about that:
Male journalists (66%) outnumbered female journalists (34%) by about two-to-one.
89% of respondents were White, 5% Black, 3% Hispanic, 2% Asian, and 2% chose the category “other” when describing their race.
Only 5% of the respondents were not college graduates. 50% had bachelor’s degrees, 14% had some post-graduate training, and a full 31% had post-graduate degrees.
Only 5% of respondents reported annual household incomes under $50,000. 43% had household incomes between $50,000 and $99,999; 21% were between $100,000 and $149,999; 17% were between $150,000 and $199,999; and 14% had household incomes of $200,000 or more.
So, whether we are looking at the opinionists or the journalists, we see that they are not only not any more liberal than the general public, but in fact are to the Right on the most pressing issues of the day.
Read the studies in the links. They are well done, fair, and sources and methodologies are all there for you to see.
It’s time we put this silly myth to bed.
JMJ